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Posts tagged ‘Pirate Gold’

This brief serial begins pleasantly enough. Young Jeff Roberts has accompanied his uncle Gregory’s expedition to the island of Moranga, sailing on the double masted Flamingo, under Captain Dennis, in search of treasure. Once they reach the island, Gregory sends Jeff to shore along with the Captain, his mate, and a bunch of the crew – but no sooner are they on shore than the mate leads a mutiny. You’d think he might have waited till the actually found the treasure, but no.

There is a mysterious stranger on the island who saves Jeff from being killed by a sailor, and helps him take a boat back to the Flamingo to warn his uncle. Who is this stranger? Beats me. He is never named, or his presence explained.

There is also another ship which crashes on the island in a storm, and an old man and his daughter, Jean, wash ashore. The mate goes for Jean, but Captain Dennis intervenes and the mate, the leader of the mutineers, goes over a cliff without ever getting a name either.

Gregory, Jeff, Jean, Captain Dennis and Jean’s father then row back to the Flamingo. The mutineers see this, and chase them, and for an enjoyable two chapters the good guys fight off the mutineers as they try to board the ship. Jeff destroys their rowboat by dropping a cannonball through it. The mutineers swim back to the island, where I expect they take out their frustrations on the mysterious unnamed man that we never see again anyway.

Captain Dennis suggests they sail to China, the nearest land, and they start to do so, but get captured and boarded by Tsang Li, the Gentle Pirate of the China Waters (he gets lots of names), who sells Jeff, Jean and Captain Dennis into slavery, and likely has Jean’s dad and Jeff’s uncle put to death (that’s my guess, seems logical)

Jeff and Dennis manage to escape the merchant they are sold to, and find the well-protected house where Jean is. They use fireworks to divert the guards and enter the complex, but find themselves in a courtyard surrounded by guys with scary curved swords.

And there it ends. Jeff and Captain Dennis get sliced to ribbons, no two ways about that, and Jean lives out her days as a slave to wealthy Chinese merchant.

Need I point out that the pirate was barely in this, and there was no gold whatsoever.